A former rebel leader, Bemba now heads the main opposition political party in
the country, the Mouvement de la Liberation du Congo (MLC), in
coalition with Union pour la Nation (UN). He lived in Faro, Portugal
until his arrest in May 2008.

Bemba
is a very tall man from Equateur province, and a native Lingala
speaker. His extended family has ties to the Mobutu galaxy.

The
'Bemba narrative' is the story of a businessman who got into politics
before politics got into him. It's also the story of a rebel leader who
knew that ballot boxes speak louder than guns and found the courage to
listen to them.

In 2003 he became one of the DRC's vice
presidents as part of a power-sharing agreement that enabled the
country to reach a final resolution to its political stalemate by
holding presidential elections in 2006. Outside observers were critical of the election process but largely charecterized it as fair enough to be acceptable.

Bemba came
strong second and lost during a runoff against the current president,
Joseph Kabila. Although
he challenged the election results at the Supreme Court, Bemba bowed to
its final judgement that swept aside his claim of invalidation.

He later ran for Senate and was elected to represent his stronghold of Kinshasa.

Although
he has been named in a few shady deals (including serious charges of
possible involvement in the crisis in the Central African Republic),
Bemba deserves credit for his contribution to the establishment of a
permanent political solution in a country that has not functioned as a
state for several decades.

On May 24, 2008 Jean Pierre Bemba was
arrested in Belgium on a warrant issued by the International Criminal
Court for alleged atrocities during the aforementioned conflict in CAR.